Through Time-Slamming (3 page)

Chapter Three

THE DARK PRINCES, Pestale, Hordly, and Graely, with Morrigu beside them, and countless monsters of every Unseelie Caste at their backs, stood in the heavily membraned inner closure of the portal, momentarily trapped.

They were damned uncomfortable in the sticky pulsating tunnel of living tissue. The inner walls began to make a roaring sound that was deafening in its force. Its floor of goo vibrated and shook, and it was obvious it wanted to spit them out and be done with them.

Eventually, even the Queen would not be able to keep its entrance to the human world shut down. Eventually, it would spit them out one by one if it had to. It would not tolerate their presence much longer and could not send them back into their own realm due to the gravity pull of the Human Realm. Once called on to open, it could only open into the World where its receptacle had been prepared.

All portals were not the same.

This one was amongst the strongest of the largest portals.

This one had its own rules, because not only was it ancient, but it was a living thing with specific needs and at that moment its need was to complete its purpose.

Its purpose? To be a portal, to transfer other living beings from one realm to another. Even if the Seelie Queen demanded otherwise, it could not obey her much longer. even if it wished to

Pestale envisioned the immediate future as he stood with his army at his back.

He knew that his arrival in the human world be so unlike the Seelie Fae’s arrival in that world.

The Seelie Fae had arrived in Ireland in a mist, with no thought to destroy. He, on the other hand, meant to destroy any that opposed him. He knew how he would look with his brutal, bloodthirsty forces of grotesque beings at his back. He knew the terror he would inspire.

Oddly enough, that was only a means to his end. A means he would not thoroughly enjoy, like Morrigu and Hordly. Eventually he would curtail the destruction of humans—
eventually.

But now his army was hungry, and they would need to feed before they did anything else, and feed he would allow. Chaos is what he needed before he brought order.

They would come without the disguise of invisibility, without human Glamour. He wanted humans to cower and cringe before they sank to their knees in supplication. Their guns would be useless, as would their bomb dropping planes. His magic would redirect their firepower back to them.

They would fall, helpless and willing, begging subjects and then he and his family—
his family
, he liked the sound of that in his mind, would march on the Isle of Tir and take the Seelie world for themselves. He saw his future as glorious and it spurred him on.

He wished he and his brothers, his dear Morrigu, were about to enter Killarney where the Royals stood waiting to cut them down. He wished he could have faced Danté and Chancemont and watched their faces as he marched on the villagers and allowed his hungry army to feed.

Wisdom however, had guided him.

Right now the last thing he wanted was a battle. He had a better plan. As much as he would have liked to engage, it would not have served his greater purpose.

He was going to take the easier road.
He was going to surprise them
.

He had created a fork in the membrane. He had infused a false portal with dark magic, and now it was time to abandon it and leave through the Monoliths that had been there waiting to receive him for eons.
Stonehenge
!

The foolish humans had argued that the stones were set for funerals and sacrifice.
Idiots.
They were and always had been Fae Portals.

The stones had been used by the Fae for transporting to and fro from Tir, long before the final battle, before ‘shifting’ was so widely incorporated into their travels.

Stonehenge was one of their greatest Portals.

He almost laughed out loud to think they were waiting in Killarney. He had fostered that belief, but Killarney was only beloved by Gaiscioch,
not by him
. While the Royals centered all their magical and quite powerful strengths on closing the entrance at the Middle Lake, he would march out somewhere else entirely, and they would have no idea where.

Pestale knew his plan was brilliant, and because he was patient, he stalled the Royals just a bit longer, letting them believe they would be victorious, before he led his army down the other living tunnel with its magical living walls. They were about to enter Earth without even having to raise a sword—but when they did raise their swords, they would make the Human Realm their own.

Their time was upon them.

The Dark Royals arrived in the twilight of evening among the stones of Stonehenge.

Their appearance was
not
through a light mist, as the Fae had arrived from Danu. They came in a burst of thunderclouds at their back, with swirling shades of darkness, followed by small bursts of flames.

Theirs was not a warm greeting to the humans they encountered. Their faces were drawn with purpose, their power pulsating off their bodies. Pestale a foot ahead of his brothers and Morrigu, led them with the confident smirk of a man who has attained what he believed was always his right.

And thus, they walked forward, like dark Gods, brilliant, exquisite to look upon, frightening in their dark leather fitted coats which flapped around their ankles in the visible swirling mass at their backs. They walked forward with the force of each of their pounding steps reverberating with an echo that could be heard for miles.

At their backs was the horrific sight of monsters, indescribable, drooling with a desire to feed, hungry with need, anxious for the command to attack.

His two brothers were on his left, his Morrigu with her black hair flying in the wind was on his right, and Pestale felt the victory engulf him with pleasure. It was so forceful that he had a moment when he nearly climaxed sexually, but controlled himself. They were here.
Unhampered and victorious, they were here!

Black glittering eyes surveyed the tourists who all as a unit had stopped their meandering about on the Stonehenge mound and stared transfixed.

Pestale saw their expressions. They thought perhaps this was a movie production. He could, in fact, hear them murmuring this to one another.

He knew and understood the picture they presented to the curious humans who stopped and watched them. He knew they presented a powerful, exotic, beautiful image as long as they did not look past him to his army. He had no hatred for humans, as Gaiscioch did. He meant in the end to rule them benignly…in the end. However, one must do what one must do to achieve that end he told himself.

And then came the moment when he heard their gasps as the humans saw what followed him and his clan. They saw the abominations at his back.

The tourists began looking to one another, and he heard someone say, ‘come on—it has to be a movie set, what else could it be?’

Pestale sneered. Humans were great fools. They never saw the truth, only what was more comfortable to believe. Pompous idiots to think they were the only ones who inhabited the Universe.

He put up his hand to stop the noise of the Unseelie excitement at his back. He had made a decision. It would be wise to allow his army to feed—and he motioned first to his Green Babblers to do so.

Green Babblers use their power to scream a pitch that will kill humans. They are horrendous to look at, with distorted lizard faces, and several eyes splashed throughout. Their bodies were human-like in shape if one discounted the fact that their chest cavity would open and allow a Venus fly trap mouth to emerge and feed.

Humans held their hands to their ears and began dropping to their knees.

The Babblers were on them—
feeding as a horde
.

Blood horrifically covered the grass and what was left of the humans was an unbearable sight.

Some humans ran, but the other castes had moved in, and the sound of humans crying out in fear and pain filled the atmosphere.

Pestale found that while Hordly was thoroughly enjoying the chaos and Morrigu looked unconcerned, it was not something he enjoyed at all. It was a necessary part of his plan, to instill terror, but in the end it was not what he wanted. This horrific bloodletting was not how he wished to live.

He looked at his younger and middle brother and for the first time noticed that Graely appeared miserable. He put a hand on his young brother’s shoulder, “You are disturbed.”

“Pestale, I find this barbaric. Humans are thinking creatures, and this…is not what
I
want. Killing in battle is one thing, but this is slaughter. We must not allow them to feed indiscriminately…it is cruel,” Graely argued.

Pestale laughed, “You are naïve, then. Just what did you think it would be like? They have been holed up in the Dark Realm for eons, they are hungry and humans serve them as food, they aren’t eating for sport.”

Graely shook his head and said nothing and Pestale clicked his tongue and turned to Morrigu who was running a hand over her body, excited now by the frenzy.

He stroked her cheek and said softly, “Morrigu, I need you to concentrate. The Bains Caste who are ferocious fighters, and whom I mean to use as the fore runners when we engage the Royals, cannot shift. It is your job to shift them as a group, while my brothers and I make certain none of the others remain behind. You know where to go, yes love?”

She rubbed her cheek against his hand, “Oh yes, it was my favorite place on Earth when we roamed freely as Seelie Gods. You are good to me Pestale, to take me back there—to give me a castle all my own. My beloved Grampian Mountains.” She eyed him, “Will you come quickly, and take care of me, Pestale, I am in need…?”

“We will be right behind you and
we
will always take care of you,” Pestale said, and he believed it to be the truth. He would always try and take care of Morrigu, who had been the only female available to supply their needs and who was by virtue of her DNA, also their mother. He excused her and blamed the Dark King for deserting her when he took up with his human consort, human no longer,
Crystal.

“Hordly, you and Graely gather them up…,” Pestale smiled with the pride because of their first victory. “We are off for…” he hesitated and the smile filled his eyes, “home,
we are off for home.”

Chapter Four

“JAZMINE DECKER, MARINE Biologist, you are late for duty,” Jazz said to the empty cave. “Or at least, you will become the fall if you don’t get out of here, or is it fall already in the human world? She knew that time in the Faery Realm and other realms as well worked very differently.

So what month, or year she was in, was a total mystery. Jazz sighed over the problem.

“What to do?” she asked out loud. She was talking to herself, yup, talking to herself, but that was okay, exercising the vocal cords was a good thing.

She had been thinking about her situation for what seemed like an hour and had come to the conclusion that in all probability, she wasn’t in immediate danger of dying. She was after all, an immortal, and if she could keep from being eaten, which she believed she had enough power to accomplish, then it was only a matter of time before Trevor found her.

She bolstered herself with this belief, looked around, put her head down on her bent arms and stretched out on the fronds.

“This sucks,” she told herself, for as bad as her situation was, she was fairly certain something awful was happening back in the Human Realm. She knew that Pestale and his army had tricked them and used another Portal—one the Seelie had overlooked.
They
should have known—
she
should have known, because she was a Fios and as a Fios she should have sensed something more was afoot. Afoot, she asked herself and laughed. Her laughter weaved into hysterical before she got control and told herself to
breathe, just breathe.

Right, what she was dealing with here was spilt milk, the hysteria tickled her throat, but she beat it down
.

So what did this mean? It meant that the Dark Royals were probably engaged in battle with the Royals and the Seelie warriors somewhere in her human world. And here she was unable to help. “Really, really sucks,” she added.

She got up, brushed herself off and went back to the mouth of the cave. Dusk was settling in. No sense trying to find her way through the dark in a land filled with prehistoric everything.

She went back and tried to mind link again with Trevor, talking out loud as well, “Trev, can you hear me? Trevor? I thought you said this mind link of ours would work anywhere? You said we could never be parted by land or distance because of our bonding. Trev…
can’t you hear me?”

Why couldn’t he hear her? Did this mean they were
not
really bonded? And if they were not really bonded, did that mean she was not his ‘true mate’ as he had told her?

The doubt slid through her body with wicked force and pricked sharply at her heart. A sudden tear formed and she swiped it away.

She had to get control of herself.

She was in the worst possible situation, and had not allowed herself to cry and she was not about to start now.

Trevor was her true love, and she was his, she was not going to give into doubts and bawl like an idiot. That would do her no good. She had to find a way to survive until she could get back.

“Trevor? Please, Trevor, I know you love me, so find me,” she beckoned

Her heart, her human heart which was still in her chest beat out his name and demanded attention. He had rocked her universe with his love, with the force and depth of his love and
he would
find her.

“Hear me, Trev,” she whispered in the cave. She shouted it in her mind in waves of desperation. “Just hear me…track me…come on baby. You are a Royal Seelie Fae, and you better find me soon before something else does and decides to have me for dinner!”

She got up and began pacing. She tripped over her own feet and as she fell her finger got caught in what was left of her top. First it had been ripped by the talons of the dinosaur bird, and then she had to use part of it for a torch,
now this!

Her top came off in shreds, which left her in a sports bra, and for some reason, even this made her want to cry.

Why can’t you hear me
? He had said that their mind link would span the Universe…? “TREVOR!” she cried out loud as well as in her mind. Sending out her energy in one feverish bolt and suddenly she felt that feeling when you aim and actually make the basket!
She felt him
. She actually felt him—near, so near, and she began wailing his name in her mind, over and over again.

~*~

Trevor had scanned his surroundings. She was here somewhere—she simply
had to be
. Where would she go?

The human he knew was still a part of who she was and would still be driving her decisions. She would seek shelter. Her human side would look for a hiding place because she wasn’t ready yet to let the Fae blood take full control.

But what sort of hiding place?

He scanned the horizon and all at once he knew. She would go high, to the mountain range so that she could survey her situation. He knew his mate. He knew what his beautiful Jazmine Decker would do.

And then he saw it in his mind; a
cave
.

She would look for a cave. He smiled to himself as he thought of her, as he pictured her. All at once he was frantic to get her back safely into his arms. He had to find her! By Danu and all that was Earth, Wind and Fire, he couldn’t go another moment not knowing where she was.

He organized his thoughts and concentrated on finding the cave she would seek out for shelter.

A moment later he was there, standing in front of a cave with a jutting rock partially obscuring its entrance. He went inside and though he could see a bit in the dark, he knew she might not yet be able to. With a flick of his wrist,

torches were produced and light was everywhere.

He strode towards something that caught his eye. It was covered in dirt, and though it had not been exposed to the weather, it looked
seriously aged
. He knew this fabric.

His Jazmine Decker had been wearing it when she had jumped into the Portal. Why would it look so aged? Why? What the hell was going on? Just where was she?

The fabric was ragged, as though it had been torn.

It was nearly disintegrating in his hands.

Disintegrating in his hands—
from time.

And then just as he realized why and closed his eyes with frustration, he heard his Jazmine Decker scream his name in his mind.

Their link
—she had found a way to use their link. Their link could not be stopped by distance, or even time. The sensation this realization gave him made him feel warm with pleasure and helpless all at once.

He had a job on his hands, for not only had the Portal sent her to
this dimension
—but it had slammed her back in time!

He paced frantically for a moment and then called back to her with his own link.
Do you hear me love? Do you hear me, my Jazmine Decker? I’m standing in your cave, so stay there. Don’t go anywhere while I figure out how to jump back in time and get hold of you.

He looked up, put his hand up and called, “Orb of Time, this Royal will not be denied!”

A moment later the Queen’s Orb was in his hand and he frowned as he commanded it. “Orb, speak to me about my mate.”

The Orb sighed, “My Queen released me from her sphere to do just that, because things are about to enter the chaotic state in the Human Realm. She says there is no time to lose—she needs you
both
now;
right now
. Catastrophe is in the making and she needs the Fios with her special skills brought to her at once.”

“What has happened?”

“The Royals have been tricked. The Unseelie Princes and their army did not really try to exit the Portal in Ireland. They are hidden from detection but we know they arrived in England at Stonehenge, because they left a trail of blood. Great trouble lies ahead.”

“Trouble eh?” Trevor gritted his teeth. “So be it, just get me to my mate,
now.
” At that moment, all Trevor wanted was to get to his Jazmine Decker. Everything else faded to the background.

The human world they were sworn to protect was being threatened with the emergence of an Unseelie Army. He needed to fight beside his brother, and Breslyn. He needed to fight with them immediately, but first he had to secure his mate. He had to get her back beside him first.

Never before had they been out-smarted by an Unseelie, not even when the Dark Ones were led by Gaiscioch, a Seelie and one of their own.

He would get his Jazmine Decker safely in his arms and only then would he attend to saving the Universe with his brethren. He had absolutely no doubt that in the end; they would slaughter the Dark Fae—because they must.

As far as he was concerned, this would be the Dark Royals last stand because
this time
, he would not listen to the Queen or the Dark King.
This time
, there had to be severe consequences for the Dark Prince’s actions.

And what of the consequences for disobeying the Queen in the end? Consequences for his actions be damned, because this time
Pestale would die at his hands!

Chapter Five

FAINTLY AS THOUGH miles away, impossibly too far to be heard, she heard him all the same--Trevor’s voice in her head. He said her name, Jazmine Decker and it sounded like a caress.

How funny that he always called her Jazmine Decker even when they made love. She adored the sound it made in her heart.

Suddenly her thoughts and emotions were interrupted as the earth trembled beneath Jazz’s feet. She got up off of the palm fronds and planted herself against the wall.
What now
?

Dirt sprayed across the earthen floor.

“Okay…okay, I’m okay…this will be okay,” she told herself out loud and waited as she rubbed her hands down her now abused and dirty jeans.

Burrowing its way out of the hard earth, a slimy black and green tentacle appeared. It was no more than six inches in length and about three inches in diameter. Its gross looking tentacle widened and splayed in the air as it inched towards her. She could see suction cups on its tentacle sucking in air as it swayed upwards.
Eww!
thought Jazz as she pressed herself against the cold damp wall of the cave.

Her shields were up front and the back of the cave was protecting her from invasion from the entrance and exit, however, she had not thought to lay a shield over the floor. She had wondered if the back of the cave had led to an exit. Choosing her steps carefully, she started to back out of the cave. She was so close to being reunited with Trevor…
she couldn’t be eaten now
. That just wouldn’t be fair!

“You have Fae blood in you,” she told herself and the words echoed back to her in the cave. “You are equipped with Fae and Fios magic, and Trev said the combined two are unbeatable.” So then Jazmine Decker thought to herself as Trevor would speak to her, “
you gonna let a slimy crawly beat you
?” It flashed through her mind that logic had nothing to do with her fear of confronting this new beast. She was still the person who jumped and screamed when a small and relatively harmless spider was in her vicinity. She gulped and bolstered herself. “You can do this.
You can
. Look at all you have already done in this insane Realm. You don’t need to run from this.”

No need to run, but still might not be a bad idea…?
Snakes, lizards and tentacles were not things she wanted to play with and like spiders, all these things terrified her.

Yes, but
you need
this cave. Trevor will come to this cave, she told herself.
Time,
Jazz, it is time to take a stand.

She sighed and planted her feet staunchly on terra firma. No more running! That was all she had done since she had landed in this mad Realm. Running was no longer the answer. Trevor had told her to stay where she was so that he could get to her and that was what she was going to do.

Her brows arched with determination as she stared at the
thing
coming up and out of the earth.
No more running
, she repeated in her mind. She then shrugged and thought,
oh well, I can always shift if this ugly turns out to be more than I can handle. Right? Right.

The monstrous creature did in fact turn out to be uglier, larger and more vicious than she had imagined it might be. As it emerged from its burrowing, several other tentacles danced before her eyes as if to say “yum yum, eat her up”. This was going from bad to worse.

The dirt began to give way and the many tentacles proved to be only the tip of what was coming.

As the beast worked its way up and out of its tunnel, the swaying octopus-like tentacles sent a chill over her entire body. The tentacles now over three feet in length gave way to the spiked body of a round pulsating mass of grotesque flesh covered with suction cups. The sucking sounds from the creature made her skin crawl.